You have signed up to be a teacher and now you are asked to learn about technology.  What can technology do for you as a teacher and for your students?  First, you need to learn some of the basic technology jargon so you'll know what the terminology means.

To get teaching licensure in North Carolina, you are required to pass a basic technology test and successfully complete a technology portfolio in which you demonstrate advanced technology skills.  The North Carolina's technology competencies can be found at http://www.unca.edu/education/edtech/competencies/.  At this site you will get a list of all the state's basic and advanced technology skills plus links to definitions of technology-related terms.  This is a great place to start learning these basic skills.
 
 

If you need you need more information about the requirements for the basic technology and advanced technology skills and all the resources available here at the Education Department, go to Information About Required Technology Skills (at http://www.unca.edu/education/edtech/required.html).

The computer lab at Zageir Hall is available to all students at UNC-Asheville.  The Zageir Hall computer lab is staffed with a lab assistant for a couple hours during the day and another lab assistant on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday evenings.  Their hours are posted in Zageir computer lab.

Many students in education come to this lab to do their work, but there are other computer labs available for your use.  See the Computer Center Labs page (at http://www.unca.edu/compcenter/labs.html) for more information about labs available and lab hours.

You have a lot of people to help you with your use and understanding of technology in education.  All of the faculty members in the education department can help you as needed.  There are also lab assistants and the Coordinator of Educational Technology to provide you with help as well.

Glenn Shepherd, Coordinator of Educational Technology, has an office in Room 128 in Zageir Hall, phone number 251-6389.  You can also email him at shepherd@bulldog.unca.edu if you have any questions about technology and education.  He will help you with your basic and advanced technology skills.  Come by his office or call him.  He loves to help people learn about technology and will talk your ear off about how technology can be used to revolutionize education.

Glenn has created an educational technology page for the Education Department at UNC-Asheville.  On this page, you can get access to many, many links related to the use of technology in education.  The URL for the Educational Technology page is http://www.unca.edu/education/edtech.  Go to this site as a starting point to find out whatever you need to know about educational technology.  Let Glenn know of any improvements he can make to this page, including any great sites you find that should be added.

You might be asking, "What is educational technology?"  You probably assume that it is putting computers in the classroom, but there is much more to this field.  Educational Technology is an instructional design process of analyzing, designing, and developing the entire learning environment using the media and technologies best suited for particular learning situations.  This could mean designing every aspect of the curriculum and instructional strategies to designing and selecting instructional materials, both traditional and more advanced technologies.  For a good overview of the Instructional Systems Design (ISD) process utilized in educational technology see an article called Instructional Systems Design (at http://www.whidbey.com/frodo/isd.htm).

The constructivist theory has been of particular interest in the field of educational technology.  As technologies are developed, educators are finding more and more need to move towards a student-centered learning environment.  The Internet and hypermedia have given educators even more reasons to take another look at what and how students learn.  For more information about how technology relates to the constructivist theory, read Education in the Internet--Linking Theory to Reality by Kathryn Davidson (at http://www.oise.on.ca/~kdavidson/cons.html).

For more articles about constructivism and technology, go to Constructivism (at http://www.cudenver.edu/~mryder/itc_data/constructivism.html).

For articles about creating the learning environment, go to Learning Environments (at http://www.cudenver.edu/~mryder/itc_data/le.html).

If you really get into what this field is all about, you can learn much more advanced and detailed information about educational technology, also referred to as instructional technology, at the University of Colorado at Denver site, Instructional Technology Connections (at http://www.cudenver.edu/~mryder/itcon.html) or go to the Instructional Technology (http://www.unca.edu/education/edtech/instructionaltech.htm) selection from the Educational Technology home page of UNC-Asheville's Education Department.

Good luck to you on your teaching career.  Keep an eye on the Educational Technology page at UNC-Asheville for the latest links to issues concerning Educational Technology.

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